Wallabies star Kurtley Beale has been discovered not responsible of allegations he sexually assaulted a lady within the lavatory of a Bondi bar after a gruelling two-week trial.
Beale, 35, confronted a jury trial at Sydney’s Downing Centre Court after pleading not responsible to sexual activity with out consent and two counts of sexual touching.
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The jury rejected claims that Beale groped the girl’s backside on the Beach Road bar on December 17, 2022, earlier than forcing her into oral intercourse within the males’s lavatory.
Barrister Margaret Cunneen SC claimed the 29-year-old lady had consented to and been “in control” of the encounter and had made the allegations to realize sympathy.
“I don’t shrink from suggesting she is a manipulative woman who curated circumstances of the night to turn the tables, to turn herself into a victim,” she mentioned on Thursday.
She later added: “This is a woman who is a very good actress. She is manipulating (Beale), she is putting words in his mouth. Mr Beale doesn’t lie, he didn’t lie.”
In her closing deal with, Cunneen targeted on one of many key facets of the trial: a secretly recorded telephone name throughout which Beale first discovered of the accusations.
In the decision, the girl advised Beale she had not consented to the sexual act. At first, he mentioned the pair “hooked up”, earlier than admitting he had “f*****g misjudged the situation”.
Cunneen advised the jury on Thursday Beale’s studying of the state of affairs on the night time – earlier than the decision – was that the sexual act within the lavatory stall was “all consensual”.
“He genuinely believed she had given and communicated consent … when she spoke something different (in the call), Mr Beale says he must have misread it,” she mentioned.
Earlier, she mentioned: “Of course there’s a guilty conscience, his wife knows what’s going on in the telephone call. If you are looking for a guilty conscience, of course you’ll find it.
“But, if a guilty conscience is about something done in marriage, that’s not ideal and is nothing to do with a guilty mind about a serious criminal offence.”
Critically, Cunneen mentioned the decision went to police not having proved one of many three parts of the offence, being that he would have identified the girl didn’t consent.
The jury had been additionally proven handwritten notes, which had been made by the girl earlier than the decision, by which she wrote that its objective was to “convince him he is guilty and not innocent”.
In her deal with, Cunneen dismissed the groping cost as being “blink and you miss it”, and mentioned an alleged second act within the lavatory stall was “absurd” resulting from timing.
During her proof, the girl vehemently denied Cunneen’s assertion she used the claims to realize sympathy from her fiance, with whom she’d had a severe argument.
Cunneen went on so as to add the girl was unable to concede disparities between her statements to police and admissions to her household, and the CCTV footage performed courtroom.
Notable within the defence case was the declare by the girl quickly after the night time that it was Beale that adopted her into the lavatory. The video proved in any other case.
The footage, performed in courtroom, captured the boozy night time on the well-liked Sydney bar, together with the 4 minutes and 30 seconds Beale and the girl spent collectively within the lavatory.
The jury had been advised each her and Beale had been intoxicated on the night time, however had been advised by Crown prosecutor Jeff Tunks they weren’t allowed to contemplate it.
For his half, Tunks advised the jury the girl had offered as a “defiant” witness who was “somewhat staunchly consistent in her assertions”.
Tunk had inspired the jury to contemplate accepting elements of the girl’s proof, with out having to simply accept all the pieces she mentioned in courtroom or to police and household.
The judgment marks the top of a gruelling multi-week trial for the jury, who deliberated for about one hour. They heard proof from the girl, her fiance, her household and her fiancés household.
Importantly, it marks the top of a one-year courtroom saga for Beale after he was stood down from the NSW Waratahs by Rugby Australia after his arrest in January 2023.
Source: www.news.com.au
